Augusta Bagiennorum

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Augusta Bagiennorum, in Italy's modern province of Cuneo, in the region of Piemonte, in Antiquity the chief town of the Ligurian tribe of the Bagienni, is probably identical with the modern Bene Vagienna, on the upper course of the Tanaro, about 35 miles due south of Turin. The town retained its position as a tribal centre in the reorganization of Roman Emperor Octavian, whose title Augustus is part of its name as a colony, and was erected on a systematic plan.

Considerable remains of public buildings, constructed in concrete faced with small stones with bands of brick at intervals, an amphitheatre with a major axis of 390 ft. and a minor axis of 305 ft., a theatre with a stage 133 ft. in length, and near it the foundations of what was probably a basilica, an open space (no doubt the forum), an aqueduct, baths, &c., have been discovered by recent excavations, and also one of the city gates, flanked by two towers 22 ft. sq.

The ancient name is also used for a modern natural reserve.

[edit] Further reading

See G. Assandria and G.Vacchetta in Notizie degli Scavi (1894), 155 ; (1896) , 215 ; (1897), 441; (1898), 299 ; (1900), 389 ; (1901), 413. (T.As.)

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.